The much-awaited Test series between Australia and India will commence on Thursday at the Adelaide Oval. After the hosts, even the Virat Kohli-led side has also announced the 12-man squad for the series opener. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja have not been included while Umesh Yadav has also missed out.

The BCCI announced the trimmed 12-man group ahead of the first Test in which one of Hanuma Vihari and Rohit Sharma are certain to play. If the practice game is anything to go by, the former looks the top candidate to get a chance. Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah are the pacers while Ravi Ashwin is the sole spinner in the line-up.

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Vijay and Rahul to open

An untimely injury to Prithvi Shaw has given a lifeline to both Murali Vijay and KL Rahul who are set to open the innings in Adelaide. Both of them had a decent outing in the second innings in the practice game and it will be interesting to see how they fare. Despite doing well in the last Test in England, Jadeja has been surprisingly left out. Ashwin continues to the be the lead spinner of the team and he should perform from the word go on this tour.

The tourists will have to bat well this time around as they have enough firepower in their bowling attack to pick 20 wickets. While Virat Kohli will be certainly under the focus, the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane will also have to contribute.

Rishabh Pant will be playing his first game down under and his wicket-keeping will be under the scanner. In England, the youngster gave away too many byes and there was a flaw in his technique as well. Though the management must’ve backed him to come good in this series with Parthiv Patel being the reserve wicket-keeper.